The Web Design Process

Last updated: December 31, 2025

Your website isn't a digital brochure—it's the primary interface between your business and your audience. That's why we follow a structured, seven-phase process that prioritizes strategy before pixels. This guide walks through how we design websites and why each step matters.

What is the modern web design process?

We follow a structured approach called the Double Diamond process—alternating between exploring options and making decisions. This prevents the costly mistakes that happen when teams skip strategy and rush straight to code.

The seven phases are:

1. Discovery - Understanding the problem and audience
2. Information Architecture - Organizing content logically
3. Visual Exploration - Establishing the aesthetic direction
4. Low-Fidelity Design - Structural wireframes without visual polish
5. High-Fidelity Design - Pixel-perfect mockups with full branding
6. Validation - Testing with real users
7. Technical Handoff - Transitioning to development

Each phase builds on the previous one, reducing risk and ensuring the final product solves the right problem effectively.

What happens during the Discovery phase?

Discovery is about reducing risk. The biggest mistake in web design isn’t building an ugly site—it’s building a site that solves the wrong problem. This phase answers the question: What are we actually trying to accomplish?

User research methods

Quantitative data analysis

Beyond qualitative interviews, we analyze existing data:

• Heatmaps - Visual representations of where users click, move, and scroll
• Scroll Maps - How far down the page users typically read
• Analytics - Traffic patterns, bounce rates, conversion funnels

Competitive analysis

We examine both direct competitors (same solution) and indirect competitors (competing for the same user attention). This includes:

• SEO forensics - Understanding how competitors acquire traffic
• Feature benchmarking - Identifying table-stakes features vs. differentiators
• Content gap analysis - Finding opportunities your competitors miss

Deliverables

• User Personas - Data-driven archetypes based on behavioral segments
• Journey Maps - Visualizing emotional and functional paths through the experience
• KPI Definitions - Success metrics that will measure the design’s effectiveness

How does Information Architecture work?

Information Architecture (IA) is how we organize your content so visitors can actually find what they’re looking for. Users don’t navigate websites linearly—they hunt for information, quickly assessing whether each link will get them closer to their goal.

Card sorting

Card sorting reveals how users naturally categorize information:

• Open Card Sort - Participants group content and name the groups themselves (reveals user vocabulary)
• Closed Card Sort - Participants sort content into pre-defined categories (tests if your labels make sense)

Tree testing

Tree testing validates findability using a text-only version of the proposed site structure. Users are asked to find specific items without visual cues.

We measure:

• Success Rate - Did they find it?
• Directness - Did they go straight there or backtrack?

Sitemaps and user flows

The primary deliverable is a Sitemap—a hierarchical diagram showing the parent-child relationship between pages. To understand movement, we create User Flows that diagram specific paths users take to accomplish goals (e.g., “Purchase a Product” or “Reset Password”).

What is the Visual Exploration phase?

Before committing to detailed wireframes, we establish the visual direction. This is where we explore multiple options—generating possibilities before narrowing down to the right approach.

Mood boards

A mood board is a collage of visual inspiration—images, textures, typography, color palettes, and motion examples—that evokes the intended emotional feel. This allows stakeholders to express preferences (“I like this clean aesthetic” or “This feels too corporate”) before hours are invested in detailed layouts.

Style tiles vs. stylescapes

Atomic Design methodology

We build interfaces using Atomic Design—breaking components into their smallest constituents:

1. Atoms - Labels, input fields, buttons, colors
2. Molecules - Groups of atoms (e.g., search form = label + input + button)
3. Organisms - Complex UI components (e.g., header = logo + navigation + search)
4. Templates - Page-level layouts
5. Pages - Specific instances with real content

This system-based approach ensures consistency and scalability. If we change an atom (like button border radius), that change propagates through every component that uses it.

What are low-fidelity wireframes and why do they matter?

Low-fidelity (Lo-Fi) design focuses exclusively on layout, hierarchy, and functionality—deliberately excluding color, imagery, and detailed typography.

The grayscale advantage

By keeping wireframes in grayscale, we force stakeholders to focus on core usability questions:

• Is the Call-to-Action (CTA) prominent enough based on position?
• Does the hierarchy guide the eye logically?
• Is any critical content missing?

If stakeholders see high-fidelity designs too early, they may reject a valid layout simply because they dislike a color. Lo-Fi wireframes eliminate this bias.

Responsive design and mobile-first

We design for the smallest screen first—this forces strict prioritization. On a desktop, there’s room for clutter; on mobile, there isn’t. Wireframes plan how layout grids change at specific breakpoints.

Accessibility from the start

Accessibility isn’t applied at the end—it’s structural:

• Heading structure - Defining H1, H2, H3 hierarchy for screen reader navigation
• Reading order - Visual order matches code order for keyboard navigation
• Touch targets - Buttons sized appropriately (minimum 44x44 pixels)

What makes high-fidelity design different?

High-fidelity (Hi-Fi) design transforms the structural skeleton into a living product. It integrates branding elements (colors, typography, photography) into the approved layouts.

Elements of fidelity

Hi-Fi design means pixel-perfect precision:

• Visual design - Detailed color palettes, typography hierarchy, spacing systems
• Real content - Replacing placeholder text with finalized copy
• Imagery - High-resolution photography and custom illustrations
• Interaction states - Hover, Focus, Active, Disabled, Error states

Micro-interactions

We pay close attention to micro-interactions—subtle animations like a button transforming into a loading spinner. These details provide feedback and delight, letting users know the system is responding.

Accessibility in Hi-Fi

At this stage, accessibility focuses on visual perception:

• Color contrast - Text meets WCAG AA standards (4.5:1 ratio) or AAA (7:1)
• Color independence - Information is never conveyed by color alone
• Focus states - Distinct visual style shows keyboard users which element is selected

How is the design validated before development?

We test throughout the process, but there’s a dedicated validation phase before we hand off to developers.

Usability testing

Sample task writing:

• ❌ “Click the ‘Pricing’ button” (tests if users can read)
• ✅ “Find out how much this costs for a team of five” (tests navigation and comprehension)

Automated accessibility audits

Automated tools like Lighthouse and Axe scan for common errors—missing alt text, low contrast, improper heading structure. Figma plugins like Stark allow designers to simulate color blindness and run contrast checks within the design file.

Preference testing

We show users variations of components and ask which they prefer and why. “Five Second Tests” show a design for 5 seconds, then ask what users remember—testing visual hierarchy and immediate impression.

What happens during the Technical Handoff?

The handoff transitions approved designs to our engineering team. We use collaborative tools to bridge the gap between design and development.

Design inspection tools

Figma’s Dev Mode allows developers to inspect design files without altering them. They can copy CSS, iOS (Swift), or Android (XML) values directly.

Designers annotate files with details not visible in static images:

• Responsive logic (“At 768px, this grid changes from 4 to 2 columns”)
• Animation specifications (“Ease-out, 300ms”)
• Interaction behaviors

Design tokens

We use Design Tokens—variables that store design decisions (e.g., color-primary = #0055FF). Our developers reference the token, not the hard-coded value. If your brand color changes, updating the token propagates the change across the entire codebase.

Design QA

The process doesn’t end at handoff. Our designers perform Design QA, reviewing the coded build to ensure it matches the original design. This catches drift—subtle discrepancies in padding, font weight, or interaction timing that inevitably occur during implementation.

The bottom line

Web design isn’t a straight line—it’s a spiral. Each iteration refines your site, bringing it closer to what your users need and what your business goals require. By respecting each phase—using Lo-Fi for logic and Hi-Fi for emotion—we deliver sites that are beautiful, structurally sound, accessible, and built to convert.